Thirty-one years had passed since Peter Frampton’s beloved guitar — a black Gibson Les Paul he’d
used during concerts chronicled on the iconic 1976 double album
Frampton Comes Alive! — was assumed gone after the cargo plane transporting it crashed in
Venezuela.

Someone, though, scoured the wreckage and had been playing the instrument ever since, unaware of
its rightful owner.

A Dutch Caribbean customs agent and Frampton fan who recently repaired the piece noticed
characteristics suggestive of the artist’s missing property. That led to a 2011 exchange with the
British songwriter that made international news.

For Frampton, who first received the guitar in 1970 during his tenure with blues-rock outfit
Humble Pie, readjustment took time.

“I was scared of playing it; it was almost more famous than I was,” said the 63-year-old, who
tonight will show off the long-lost guitar in Lifestyle Communities Pavilion. “I had to get to know
it again. It’s a very, very special instrument to me.”

Guitars, of course, are the centerpiece of the artist’s ongoing tour, dubbed “Frampton’s Guitar
Circus.” Every show boasts a cast of guest musicians (each one “leaving home to join the circus,”
the host joked) who will both perform solo and intertwine their talents with the namesake
headliner.

A Columbus stop will include blues singer-guitarist Robert Cray and Stax Records legend Steve
Cropper (Booker T & the M.G.’s, the Blues Brothers).

A longtime fan of Les Paul models, Frampton conceived the idea of “just making it a guitar
evening” with admired peers — a project launched on the heels of another collaboration: playing
live in April with the Cincinnati Ballet.

“I was up for the challenge; it went down phenomenally,” said Frampton, who last year moved to
Nashville (“to be closer to all those guitars”) after living in the Queen City for more than a
decade.

Present dates are also fueled by the reception of a 2011-12 tour marking the 35th anniversary ofFrampton Comes Alive! — an endeavor that took the still-energetic Frampton on 116
performances spanning three hours apiece.

Among scores of songs, one selection can’t be omitted: 1973’s
Do You Feel Like We Do, a 14-minute epic that features the performer’s “talk box”
interlude.

Still, “I think I could get through an evening without playing (a talk box), but people would
leave the building and go: ‘Wait a second!’ ” Frampton said, with a laugh. “It’s an incredible
communication device. I enjoy it. It’s comedic.”

Frampton was inspired to try a Heil talk box — a pedal device that relays an instrument’s output
to reverberate inside a user’s mouth — after hearing Stevie Wonder “speaking through it” on his
1972 album
Music of My Mind.

“I thought: If I could communicate with the audience, I could be on to something,” he said. “
And, of course, it worked tremendously.”

Despite the endurance of such futuristic sounds (talk-box technology, in fact, originated in the
1930s, he’s noted in past interviews), Frampton isn’t keen on the spacey, synthetic sounds that
permeate modern music.

As pop, rap and even rock ’n’ roll grows more electronic, “It does become very mechanical,” he
said. “They do take a lot of the emotion out.”

Frampton wouldn’t consider the sound-altering Auto-Tune to, say, disguise his voice, but he does
rely on the software to correct tone and pitch.

“I’ll be honest; everybody uses it,” he said. “I might use it to tune one note. If you listen to
my live album, I’m singing out of tune in places. I cannot listen to certain parts. But there’s an
emotion.

“Mick Jagger, he’s a little out of tune sometimes, too.”

As listeners revisit
Frampton Comes Alive!, they might add a new recording to their libraries: Each Frampton’s
Guitar Circus gig will be offered for purchase as an MP3 just hours after a performance.

Fresh memories, he knows, can also come alive.

“For me, I’m always proud of the live show,” Frampton said. “Yes, there might be some mistakes
in there, but that’s what it’s all about.“Sometimes, I fall on my face. I don’t really worry about
it.”